Print on Demandâ€”and Eco-Friendlyâ€”Newspapers of the Future

Young people have been turning to the Internet as a main news source for years now, despite the fact that reading a printed page actually allows for a deeper understanding of content. But what if your "newspaper" offered the best of both worlds? What if it allowed you to self-select content from both mainstream media and blogs, then print it on demand to eco-friendly, reusable paper? Xerox recently unveiled a technology that may someday allow us to do just that.
Xerox's erasable paper, revealed during Chicago's WIRED NextFest, "prints" through a reaction to light of a specific wavelength and then erases within 24 hours to be used again. This lends itself perfectly to an eco-friendly on demand print newspaper modelâ€”giving readers the ability to read their favorite content on the page, where it is easier to absorb. The Xerox representatives also hinted at the possibility of a more portable printer to be used with mobile phones. If this were to become common practice, how might it change the way we create content online?